Saturday, November 19, 2005

Surprised?

I’m not. Manchester United and former captain Roy Keane have parted ways. Both player and club made their silly media friendly statements and Roy got a payoff to shut up. That, in a nutshell is the new paradigm at Old Trafford, and it seems Celtic are the most likely to sign Keane, but should they?

The press releases say that is was by mutual consent. If you believe that then you believe anything. Alex Ferguson probably felt that his authority was being undermined; he probably had no trouble convincing the smarmy David Gill, who in turn had no problem convincing the Glazers to fire Keane. The Glazers want what every American businessman wants: to have their employees shut up. Keane ruffled a lot of feathers with his vitriolic interview recently. America is also famous for its hire and fire culture; letting Keane go midseason was a strange development, but not when you take that into account.

Mutual consent? Keane turned up at a reserve match on Thursday to build his fitness and was told he wouldn’t be playing and to go see Alex Ferguson. The next morning the two apparently met and Ferguson told the veteran that the door was over there.

For Keane, it’s like any other star player: they can get away with virtually anything unless their years or form catches up with them. For me, both were true for Keane. I thought the praise he got last season was overdone. He played ok, but compared to 4 or 5 seasons earlier, there was a marked difference. His injury rate had also increased a lot in the last few seasons.

For Celtic, I doubt new manager Gordon Strachan would want to upset his locker room so soon after taking over the club. His start there was rocky enough and only recently has Strachan, a former hot head himself, started to gain the confidence of the team and fans. Adding an injury prone, volatile player who has shown that he won’t bite his tongue for anyone would be a risk I personally wouldn’t take, especially with world class holding midfielders like Maniche around.

3 Comments:

"He played ok, but compared to 4 or 5 seasons earlier, there was a marked difference."

I think that wasn't a fair comment. You are comparing the performance of a player at the end of his career to that at the peak of his age. If age is not a factor, we'd be still seeing Bobby Charlton on the pitch...

I think Keane may not perform like he did in his peak, but he still wielded that command and influence on the pitch that made him so important. He has also reined in his temper on the pitch.

Of course, the man is a fire-brand. There is no doubt. But players in this position need this sort of grit determination and imposing mentality to succeed.

I don't know if you guys care, but I thought I'd spread the word that there are these cool two DVD's at this joint called capitalent.com. They are DVD's on the Chelsea football club. One called Chelsea Centenary and the other 04-05 Season Review. It's only available on the site before Christmas...